Eschborn-Frankfurt 2025

May 1, 2025 The Eschborn-Frankfurt is the official end to the Spring classics although it feels more on its own rather than part of the Ardennes style races. The route is a challenge nonetheless with 3,200M of climbing across 198KM of racing. The center pieces are the two ascents of the Feldberg and the three ascents of the Mammolshain climb. The second ascent of the Feldberg is an 8KM climb at 6% and tops out with 89KM to go. The Mammolshain is 2.4KM at 7.5% and the third and final ascent comes 35KM from the line. The race then descends into the outskirts of Frankfurt and finishes after two laps in the center of the city. Previous years have seen small group sprints which is the likely outcome since no alterations have been made to the course for this year. The weather could not have been more perfect for the sign-on in Eschborn. Loads of fans were out due to Tag der Arbeit, a National Holiday, to see the riders off under bountiful blue skies and early Summer-like temperatures. The fight for the break played out on city streets through downtown much like a criterium with constant lefts and rights. Pierre Thierry of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Laurence Pithie of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe got away and the gap grew quickly. The peloton shut down leaving just the two riders to establish an advantage. Michael Gogl of Alpecin-Deceuninck started to ride when the gap got to 4 minutes but the break eeked out another 90 seconds before finally stabilizing at 5 minutes 30 seconds. Thierry led the Pithie over the Feldberg to start the fast and straight descent but their gap had been reduced by about one minute on the climb. With 118KM to go, the peloton was all across the road in color order through the village of Liederbach am Taunus in anticipation of the first ascent of the Mammolshain. Pithie was dropped as soon as the road tipped upward leaving Thierry to maintain his 3 minutes 30 seconds all alone. The crowds were ten deep at the top of the Mammolshain and seemed like a great atmosphere for a mid-week festival. Another rush came in the bunch as they looped back around to take on the Mammolshain again. Thierry started the climb with 98KM to go but he was not able to get to the top in the lead as the peloton were charging up the last steep 500M and caught the Frenchman. There would be no reprieve over the top however because they swung on to the Feldberg almost immediately to continue climbing for another 8KM to the top for the second and final time. Jayco AlUla sent Alessandro De Marchi to the front to string the peloton out on the Feldberg. Paul Double took over and the pace went up another level. Riders started to go out the back due to the pace and the heat of the day and with 1KM to go to the top at 88KM from the finish, about 50 riders were at the front with cracks developing all the way down the group. 30 riders went over the top on their way to two uncategorized climbs off the descent of the Feldberg before about 35KM of downhill or flat to the base of the Mammolshain for the final time. The group increased in size a bit but Uno-X Mobility and Jayco AlUla had their leaders of Magnus Cort and Michael Matthews within and were keen to stave off any regrouping from behind. The pace stayed high through the village of Eppstein. We did not get consistent time checks but heard that the nearest chase group was 1 minute behind. Ådne Holter of Uno-X Mobility did the majority of the riding at the front of the bunch to the base of the Mammolshain. The bunch started the Mammolshain with 37.5KM to go and the first attack came from Neilson Powless of EF-Education EasyPost 700M later. Alessandro Covi of UAE-XRG and Albert Withen Philipsen of Lidl-Trek each ratcheted up the pace but it was Max Schachmann of Soudal Quickstep, Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility, and Gregor Mühlberger of Movistar that got away 500M from the top. Leknessund sat on but they still managed to hold 15 seconds while attacks were going behind. The three leaders were brought back with 18.5KM to go and Uno-X Mobility took control in hopes of getting the race to finish in a sprint. The group took the bell for one lap and 6KM to go for the last lap of the Frankfurt circuit. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe sent a few riders on the attack to get away but Uno-X Mobility and Jayco AlUla had three riders a piece and were able to draw things back each time. In the sprint, Uno-X Mobility led from 1KM through the final corner at 500M. They had one man in front of Magnus Cort at 300M who then launched 50M. Michael Matthews went around the other side of the Uno-X Mobility lead out and quickly got passed Cort. No one was able to come with more speed and Matthews crossed the line for his first win of the season after many good results this Spring. Cort finished second with Jon Barrenetxea of Movistar behind in third place.